Heavenly Father,
We have repeatedly asked you to teach us from your word and we are asking that again right now. We want to be certain of the things we have been taught.
We pray that you would take the words of this Gospel of Luke and write them upon our hearts. We want to know Jesus better, love him more and serve him more faithfully than ever.
In so doing we want to increase our love for you.
Make us lovers of God in the truest and deepest sense.
In Christ,
Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father
We thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This event shows us that he was more than an ordinary man.
We believe and rejoice in the fact that he died for our sins. We accept the fact that he rose and then ascended into heaven. We are grateful for his present intercession for us and look forward to his soon return.
We offer up our prayers to you in his name,
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
You have given us more than we could ever repay. You have put us eternally in your debt by sending your Son Jesus to live a real human life and to die a very human death for our sins.
We thank you for his humility, and the fact that he would be born as any normal human child and grow up through his teen years into adulthood like any other human being.
And we thank you for your salvation.
As the psalmist asks, what can we give you for all these benefits that you have given us?
We will receive the gift, receive your salvation and receive the free gift of eternal life.
Help us to live that life that we live completely for you, beginning now but lasting forever.
In Christ,
Amen.
Dear Lord Jesus,
You said during the time of your ministry, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Little did your disciples know at the time how that would happen or how it would look.
Now, having been accused, tried and sentenced, we see what you went through for us. The humiliation, the pain and the suffering were all to pay the price for our sins. You paid this ransom so that we could walk free.
You refused to come down from the cross. You endured the abandonment of your disciples, which was tragic, but also of the very Father who sent you, at your greatest moment of need. Such grief is thankfully beyond our experience.
How fitting that those who passed by derided you, illustrating how badly we all needed the work your were completing at that moment. How perfect also was the darkness that descended, dimming the view of the worst of your suffering from those present, and likewise from the rest of us who would read of it later, And you died among thieves, like the worst of common criminals.
All of this you did for us. We thank you for bearing our sin. We thank you for paying the price for our salvation. We thank you for the humility you expressed so that we might be glorified with you someday, and will know that glorified state for all eternity.
This is how we know what love is.
Thank you Jesus.
Amen.
Central Reflections 